Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
John Keir
John Keir, farmer near Artesia, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1837, of
Scotch parents, Walter and Catharine (McIntire) Keir. His father, a seafaring
man, died in January, 1842; his mother died in 1884. They had six children, of
whom John was the fourth. Learning the carpenter�s trade, he followed this
vocation in Scotland, England and the United States. He came to America in
1867, worked a few months in Cincinnati, then for a short time in Leavenworth,
Kansas, and then in Wichita, that State, near which place he pre-empted a
quarter section of land. He came to the coast in 1874, spent a year in San
Francisco and Santa Clara, next a short time in Ventura County, and finally came
to this county. He sold his place in Kansas in 1881. He owns eighty acres of
very good land two miles southwest of Artesia, where he is recognized by his
neighbors as an exceptionally honest man. He is an earnest and conscientious
worker in the �Holiness� Church, and as a Christian his life is exemplary. Mr.
Keir has been twice married. December 31, 1863, he wedded Miss Mary Stevenson,
a native also of Scotland and daughter of William and Mary (Wood) Stevenson.
Their eldest son, Walter, died at Leavenworth in 1869. She died in Wichita in
1873, leaving four children: William S., Mary W., John D. and Catharine Mel. In
1876 he married Miss Harriet, daughter of John and Frances (Annsley) Neill, and
a native of County Armagh, Ireland, as were also her parents. Her father,
however, was of Scotch ancestry her mother of English. Her mother reared a
family of six children, five by a former marriage. Both her parents are buried
in the country of their nativity. Mrs. Keir came to America in 1875. The three
children by this marriage ware: Walter, Fannie A. and Maggie.
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California � Chicago, The Lewis
Publishing Company, 1889, Pages 380 & 381 - Transcribed by Pat Houser, April 3,
2006